TheWizard

You're right, I'm sure the majority are in North America... I was just pointing out some trivia because of some research I had been doing on European lighting standards versus US standards. For example, headlights in Europe which put out more than a specified amount of light (generally HIDs) must have an automatic leveling system that helps reduce glare as the vehicle moves up and down over irregularities in the road. Such systems are allowed but not required in the US.

This would be reversed, of course, in countries where they drive on the left - the right side of the beam cutoff would be lower where oncoming traffic is approaching on the right.

I got it on ebay a long time ago but the seller has since been listed as missing so maybe he wasn't using his own product.

Deer whistles have been debunked numerous times yet there are still people in those Amazon reviews who say they must work because they haven't hit a deer since installing them (although plenty of negative reviews say they did hit deer even after installation). By that logic, my alien whistles must also work since I haven't been abducted by aliens since installing them.

Six posts and every one is about the same scam artist LED bulb website. LED lights have potential but without extensive real world testing they are mostly over-hyped and not practical. There are a few that can work reasonably well but they are much more than $59.95 per pair and they don't promise impossible levels of output. H9 is the most compatible upgrade from H11 since it increases light output without any significant change to the bulb design other than the filament (yes, you have to shave a tab in the connector to make it fit). The difference is noticeable - about a 45% increase in output - but it still might not be enough depending on your situation. At this point a good HID conversion kit would be the next step up. A good HID kit will give you a little over twice as much light output as the H11 but it means spending $150 or more for a name brand like Morimoto or Diode Dynamics - not a $35 kit from DDM Tuning or ebay. And it involves some lighting system modification, often requiring dust cap changes and relay kits.

No, low blinker fluid is indicated an annoying ticking noise when the signals are on.

Very good point and I think you'll find that he is a shill for that website (or at least works for them) considering his signature. There has been no response to my comment that they advertise LED headlight bulbs that are supposedly 4-5 times as powerful as name brand ones yet are less than $60 per pair. They belong in the same category as the Magnetic Fuel Savers or Electric Superchargers sold on ebay.

I've heard many complaints about LED headlights bulbs but blinding oncoming traffic is not one of them - at least not when used in projector style lamps. Too much foreground light, not enough distance, or simply not enough light are common issues but the design of a projector lamp really prevents any significant blinding output. The reason for blinding glare is the incorrect position of the light source within the lamp. On a parabolic reflector lamp, even a slight change in position or orientation of the light source can cause significant misalignment of the output beam. But with the elliptical reflector at the back of a projector lamp, the orientation of the light source makes almost no difference and the position (closer to the reflector or farther away) merely moves the focal point forward or back. Changing the focal point so that it is farther ahead of the shutter will actually reduce the upper level light, eliminating glare for others and increasing foreground light while reducing total light output. This is the common situation with cheap LED bulbs because they have a long center support structure that aids in cooling but moves the light source farther into the lamp than the original halogen filament. It is also the reason that HID capsules in halogen projectors sometimes create more glare - the total length of the capsule is greater than a bulb but the arc itself is positioned closer to the base causing the focal point to be before the shutter and increasing upper light output. Even there, the upper light is diffused and restricted by the front lens. Some light is desirable above the cutoff to illuminate road signs but not enough to cause a problem for oncoming traffic (that's why the graphic shows that light as a gray line). Basically, if you can get an LED bulb (or HID capsule) which has its light source in the same position as it would be in the equivalent halogen bulb then there's no reason why it wouldn't work just as well as or better than the original bulb.

Sorry but I would never trust a site that sells LED bulbs that they claim produce 16,000 or 12,000 lumens... many times what reputable sites sell (V-LEDs sells bulbs that produce 4,500 lumens peak or about 3,000 lumens in normal operation). Novsight's numbers are more than most aircraft landing lights produce so they are obviously fudging the numbers to make sales.

Horsepower and torque follow a curve when graphed and will vary from model to model, often even between vehicles of the same model. The link provided by MaX83_ZA in post #14 provides some examples from different vehicles. In some, like the Miata, the increase was fairly constant across the range while in others, like the F150, both torque and horsepower were lower with 93 octane compared to 87 octane at lower RPM but surpassed the lower octane at higher speeds. Generally speaking, advancing the ignition timing will have more performance impact at higher RPM. This is because the air/fuel mixture takes the same amount of time to burn regardless of engine speed so firing the spark plug earlier at higher speed will help with getting the mixture completely burned thus producing the most efficient use of the air/fuel charge. So to answer your question... I can't say. Your engine may be one that benefits across the RPM range or it may not. The only way to tell is to run it on a dyno.

Basically, the engine control computer (PCM, ECM, or whatever it's called in each model) advances ignition timing until the knock sensors show a pre-ignition condition and then back the timing out to a safe level. Since the sole purpose of added octane is to reduce knock, using higher octane fuel in these cars will result in improved performance because the ignition timing can advance a little further with higher octane than with lower octane. Advancing the ignition timing can only produce a limited amount of performance increase before reaching a point of diminishing returns which varies for each design. For example, the Coyote 5.0 in its original configuration went from 402 HP to 412 HP between 87 octane and 93 octane - a gain of just under 2.5% and that's peak horsepower at high RPM. Larger performance gains require more air (and hence more fuel) or increased compression. That's why larger displacement or forced induction are the most common power improvements used.

What Nick was referring to is although there are plenty of manufacturers who have LED headlights, all of them are custom designed assemblies and none use plug-and-play bulbs (like H9, 9012, etc.).

In general, you want the LEDs to point to the sides of the projector tube rather than top and bottom. But I've never used a bulb that has only one LED rather than having at least a pair of them on opposite sides of the support so I'm not sure which way they would work best. It seems to me that you won't get a good pattern with them no matter which way they're oriented. Even with so-called 180 degree beam angle (actually no more than 178 degree since an LED can't emit from its edges), you're still only producing light to half of the elliptical reflector in the projector lamp so the beam pattern will suffer somewhere. Aligning the LED toward the top would cause the reflected light to be traveling downward causing that common LED problem of too much foreground light and not enough distance. Aligning the LED facing the bottom would cause the opposite - too much light higher up causing glare for other drivers.

I have always been a proponent of the "let it burn" idea - I've seen how quickly a fire can make a vehicle unwanted even if it technically isn't a write-off. But akirby has made me rethink that. An extinguisher really could be the difference between life and death (or serious injury) for occupants even if you don't care to save the vehicle itself. I think I might go out this weekend and get a small extinguisher for each vehicle. If it happens and everyone is safe then I can decide to let it burn or not but at least I'll have the option.

In all but the most remote areas, you generally won't find stations that do so little business that they aren't refreshing their tanks regularly. It's much more of a problem with higher octane grades because those don't sell well even at busy stations but even our slowest dealer stores sell 21,000 gallons of regular 87 octane every month. With the common in-ground tank size of 10,000 gallons, and considering that they can't access the bottom 800 gallons or so, that means that they are turning their tanks about every ten days which is unlikely to be long enough to cause phase separation (the most common cause of "bad gas"). Our busiest stores get as many as three 9,000 gallon deliveries each day so there is a considerable range of volumes. But if you do get stuck buying from a low volume station, buy regular because they may not sell enough of the higher octane grades to keep it fresh... I've seen stores that don't sell 1,500 gallons of 93 octane in a month so the gas could get quite old. Other things to watch for are the cleanliness of the pad (the concrete area around the pumps) and the speed of the pumps. A poorly maintained pad could indicate a general lack of care in maintaining their tanks, pump filters, and fill caps which could mean contamination of the fuel in the tanks. Unusually slow pumps generally indicate clogged filters which could mean that there's lots of water or debris in the tanks - stop pumping and go somewhere else.

Your brother is absolutely right - basic gas is the same from all refineries. But basic gas (known as "unbranded" in the industry) has only the federally mandated minimum additives. The difference between brands is truly in the additive package and each keeps their formulations as a closely guarded secret. Top Tier fuels have additive packages that meet certain standards which are much higher than the government minimums. In the short term, unbranded gas will do no harm to your engine but over the long run Top Tier gas will do a better job of keeping your engine clean and running well.

Oh, not offended at all... this is an interesting discussion to which I like to contribute because I've spent the last 20 years working for a major oil company jobber so it's kind of in my wheelhouse. Please don't delete the link because it provides a lot of good detail which I just tried to summarize.

That report adds interesting detail and confirms what has been discussed... if the manufacturer says the vehicle requires high octane then always use it and if it says high octane recommended then the choice is yours - spend the extra money for a minimal increase in performance/mileage or save the money. If 87 octane is specified then most cars gain absolutely nothing by running higher octane. We ran our Ecoboost Edge on 87 octane all the time after trying both ways and finding no noticeable improvement using higher octane. There are two types of programming used in engine parameters. Most engines are programmed to run on a specific octane level and will only retard ignition timing to compensate for bad gas if the knock sensors detect a problem. Those engines gain nothing by using higher octane fuel. Some engines have more dynamic programming which will advance ignition timing to just shy of the point where knock occurs to get the most performance out of higher octane fuel (within limits of course). Those engines include the Cyclone and Coyote series from Ford, the Hemi engines from Chrysler, and the newer LS series from GM along with a few others. They will run perfectly well on 87 octane but will show some increased performance on higher octane fuel. It's up to the owner whether the small increase is worth the cost.

That's correct... I didn't go into enough detail in my description.

The recent Cyclone Ti-VCT V6 engines (3.5L and 3.7L) are designed to advance ignition timing to improve performance when higher octane fuel is detected by the knock sensors. The gain in horsepower is measurable but fairly small and occurs at high RPM so most drivers would never notice it. The gain in mileage is also small but can amount to as much as 1 mpg... a significant amount for marketing and meeting federal CAFE standards. The problem is that the mileage gain doesn't come close to covering the extra cost of 93 octane over 87 octane. You may gain a little mileage but still end up paying more for gas overall (fewer gallons but more dollars). As mentioned, ethanol free fuel will give you even more performance gains - enough to actually feel with the seat-of-the-pants meter but again at considerable extra cost. Here in Florida, pure gas costs about the same as 93 octane E10 (which is 50-60 cents per gallon more than 87 octane) and is commonly rated 89 octane but still gives more noticeable performance improvement. It's up to you whether it's worth the extra money.

But why? They don't indicate an alarm being active - they are there just to confirm the action of locking the doors because there are no actual moving lock knobs. I guess Ford figured that anyone wanting to fake an alarm system could do it with readily available aftermarket parts. You can buy red LED lights to mount in the dash that are designed to blink whenever the ignition is off. You can even buy lights that look like the scanner on Knight Rider.

Guilty conscience? Nobody in this thread commented about that. Seriously though, HID kits in projector lamps generally don't cause the problems that you see with putting them in reflector lamps. They're not perfect and there is still some light scatter but nowhere near the "high beams in your face" results of installing a kit in reflectors and having light go literally everywhere. Personally, it's only the jackasses that blind other drivers that make me angry. I doubt that the majority of drivers would even notice that you don't have the factory bulbs in your projectors.

Ah, Lucas... the Prince Of Darkness. He invented the intermittent windshield wiper (not intentionally).

I'm with you on visibility on a motorcycle. But a big difference is that bikes are much smaller and generally have smaller and less noticeable tail lights that are easily overlooked. It's hard to overlook an SUV with three large (and bright) brake lights. And bikes are far less common on the road so the occasional one with a brake light flasher is not nearly as annoying as the recent proliferation of them on full size vehicles. I remember an instructor at one of our Experienced Rider Courses talking about the fact that almost three quarters of motorcycle accidents happen in the front yet bikers tend to put most of their accessory lighting on the back. That's why I installed a headlight modulator on my last Gold Wing and didn't bother with a brake light flasher (also because a Wing has a lot more lighting in back than a typical bike so it's more visible anyway).

Isn't the hood switch already activated in vehicles with the factory alarm system?